Lewis Hamilton won his third race of the year in Spa to take back the lead of the drivers’ championship.

He passed Mark Webber at the start and clung on to win as a series of showers hit the track causing an action-packed race.

They were the only two of the top five championship runners to score points as Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button all hit trouble

Barrichello crashes out of 300th race

Having started from pole position Webber was down to sixth by the first corner, as he bogged down badly. Hamilton seized the lead followed by Robert Kubica and Button.

But within a few moments the first of the rain showers had hit the tracks. It wasn’t very heavy, but enough to make the braking zone for the chicane treacherous. Several cars failed to get around it including Hamilton and Button, who was trying to pass Kubica.

Rubens Barrichello also got it wrong and crashed heavily into Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. The impact was enough to tear a wheel off the Williams, ending Barrichello’s 300th race, but Alonso astonishingly was able to keep going.

That brought the safety car out, but not before Button had taken advantage of a mistake by Kubica at the top of Eau Rouge to claim second. Vettel almost followed him through but had to take to the grass to avoid the Renault.

Vettel hits Button

Hamilton stayed ahead of Button at the restart while Vettel moved ahead of Kubica. The Red Bull driver now set about attacking Button, whose McLaren had a damaged front wing.

Hamilton had stretched his lead to ten seconds by the time the rain returned and Vettel began pursuing Button more aggressively. On lap 16 Vettel tried to pass Button at the chicane, lost control of his car and ploughed into the side of the McLaren.

Steam billowed from the side of the MP4-25, indicating it was terminally damaged. But Vettel was able to continue after a stop in the pits for a new front wing. Meanwhile Kubica moved up to second ahead of Webber.

As another shower passed over the track teams turned their attention to making their mandatory dry-tyre pit stops. Adrian Sutil came in early to ensure he stayed ahead of Alonso.

The Ferrari driver had already been in after his collision to try intermediate tyres before switching back to the hard compound. He picked off the new teams’ cars and then spent several laps trying to get past Liuzzi, who he eventually edged aside at the chicane for 13th place.

After Sutil pitted the others began to react. First Webber, then Felipe Massa and Kubica together on the next lap. Webber fell short of getting ahead of Kubica with his pit stop, trying to slipstream by at Kemmel but unable to get by.

Hamilton finally came in on lap 24 and got away again still in the lead. But it wouldn’t be his last stop.

Scare for Hamilton

The biggest shower of the race arrived with around ten laps to go. As before Hamilton and the rest tried to tough it out on slicks to begin with. Others gambled: Timo Glock switched to full wet tyres right away, but it never got quite wet enough for that.

Hamilton, Kubica, Webber and Massa came by the pits still on their slicks as the rain hammered down, but the cars further behind them had seen enough and all began to peel in, most for intermediates.

Hamilton found out why at Rivage, as he understeered off through the gravel. He gave the barrier the merest of kisses and managed to re-join the circuit. But his lead had now been slashed.

This time the lead quartet all pitted. Kubica failed to stop his R30 on his marks and knocked several of his pit crew over, and the time lost allowed Webber by into second place.

Crash ends Alonso’s race

By now Alonso had made it up to eighth by Kamui Kobayashi. But as he came out of turn seven on lap 37 he ran too high on the kerb and spun into the barrier.

This finally brought the apparently indestructible Ferrari to a halt and the safety car was summoned again. At this point the rain was falling most heavily, potentially robbing the drivers who’d tried full wets of their best chance to make up places.

The race re-started with four laps to go and Hamilton held his lead over Webber and Kubica to the flag – the McLaren driver finally claiming the win that was taken from him two years earlier. Webber was the only other driver in the top five of the championship to score points.

Massa had a quiet run to fourth, with Adrian Sutil less than a second behind him at the flag.

Nico Rosberg took sixth ahead of Michael Schumacher, the pair swapping places twice during the race. Schumacher passed Rosberg – and gave his front wing a knock – after his team mate was taken by Vitaly Petrov. But Rosberg fought back later in the race, edging his team mate aside at Les Combes.

Petrov came home ninth behind Kobayashi – a useful recovery having started 23rd. Jaime Alguersuari claimed the final point for tenth but the stewards are investigating whether he gained an advantage by cutting the chicane late in the race while battling with Liuzzi.

The Force India driver was 11th ahead of Pedro de la Rosa, Sebastien Buemi and Nico H?â??lkenberg who spun late in the race on wet tyres.

Vettel ended the race out of the points in 15th. Liuzzi made contact with his left-rear tyre after Vettel passed him at the chicane, leaving Vettel with a puncture which he had to drag around an entire lap. An extra stop for a second set of full wet tyres meant he made a total of five trips to the pit lane, including his drive-through penalty for hitting Button.

Heikki Kovalainen was first among the new teams, followed by Lucas di Grassi, Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli and Sakon Yamamoto.

yer but it was the one time in history when Legard corrected Brundle. He was deffinately on inters. Which probably contributed to the crash, if the safety car hadn’t come out we prob would have seen a few more cars fly off on inters.

I just want to say that RACE CONTROL again has been tragicly interfiering in the racing.(punishing Vetel ,investigating Rubens????). They will soon forbide takeovering….TRAGIC.
Like they have misson to make racing steril and boring…

How is it interfering when Rubens was already out of the race before he was investigated? I thought it was tragically interfering with the race what Vettel did to Button by being too optimistic about chances of overtaking, but not so strange the Race Control thought that needed investigation.

Vettel was punished because he caused an avoidable accident. Vettel only needed to go vaguely right to reach the pit lane and get a new wing, before heading back out. Not as bad as being wiped out of 2nd through zero fault of your own. Hence, Vettel was given a drive-through, which was enough to scupper his chance of any points, something that already befell Button.

Now that its mentioned, what is an avoidable accident? There is no such thing. If its avoidable, there would be no accident, unless its deliberate, which this was not.

I’m not in favour of the clamour to punish drivers who attempt overtakes and get them wrong, its ruining F1. The same fans who call for penalties then complain when we get processions like bahrain with drivers not willing to risk a move.

Sorry mate, you misunderstood me. Though I’ve never driven an F1 car before, I have raced karts and I can say that the way he flicked the wheel was only ever going to result in a slide, especially under braking. I’m not saying he shouldn’t try and overtake. If he had controlled the car I’d still say it was stupid because modern F1 cars aren’t designed for controlled slides! (though admittedly I’d be praising his car control)

The first safety car was because Barrichello’s car, and all the debris were in a dangerous position. The second was because Alonso’s destroyed car was covering half the track. You simply can’t in this day and age have them racing in such dangerous situations.

Vettel should be punished, A drive through penalty isn’t harsh enough, he needs a grid drop for the next race in my opinion, hes a great driver but he has a massive inability to overtake! Gutted for Jenson. What a race though!

I really hate this! ItÂ´s so unfair! When will they stop mistreading Massa! I mean, he was all fired up and ready to jump out of his car and let Alonso drive it and Ferrari didnÂ´t even think of that! Poor Massa…

It sounded pretty distinguished to me, like the header had fallen off. It was pronouced in Fagnes and Stavelot, where you might have a lot of part-throttle. Mercedes have had a distinct engine note for a while—kind of heavy and mechanical in low revs, notes of a Porsche racing flat-6 almost, while the Ferrari screams bloody murder. But that bellowing in Fagnes was unmistakeable. They are up to something there.

I think the reason the mclarens were near to the pace of the redbulls in s2 is because they could afford to use a higher downforce setting than the two rbs. As for Hamilton being lucky as usual, what happened to him in Hungary? It sure wasn’t look in my eyes!!!

I too would support a Crofty switch to tv. Imagine how hilarious It would be trying to interpret Legard’s muddled sounds coming out of your radio! To be fair, I do enjoy a spot of legarderrorwatch.. it would make a decent drinking game.